Proper 24/Pentecost 23

October 19, 2008

The Ven. Richard I Cluett

Isaiah 45:1-7 ~ Matthew 22:15-22

 

Let's review for a moment what was going on in the time of Cyrus and in the time of Jesus. A littler review won't hurt, will it?

 

The Isaiah passage is the part of the Isaiah prophecy known as Second Isaiah and it was written in the time of the Babylonian Captivity of the people of Israel. For generations Israel has been captive in a foreign land, held completely at the mercy of a foreign power. They had lost whatever self-confidence, self-assurance they had as a people, as a nation and now were living at the mercy of these foreign powers, forced to live lives foreign to their own ways. They were at the mercy – and there was none.

 

Into that situation Isaiah speaks a word of hope that their deliverance will surely come and it will come from a direction they never could possibly have imagined. Common wisdom was that if, indeed, Persia was going to conquer Babylon, the only change for the Israelites would be at whose mercy they now would be forced to live; a change in masters only. Isaiah prophesizes that Persia, and Cyrus in particular, will be the means of their deliverance into freedom and return to their homeland.

 

So don't lose faith. God is God and has not and will not leave his people bereft.

 

In the time of Jesus, Israel is once again in the grasp of a foreign power, living at the mercy of Rome; Roman governors, Roman soldiers, Roman tax collectors, Roman judges. Living at the mercy of other's power, as were their forbearers, except this time it is in their own land.

 

The Herodians, known to us as King Herod and his brothers and cousins, were Jews who governed on behalf of Rome. The Pharisees were strict constructionists of Jewish faith, life and law, but were not above cooperating with the powers-that-be to protect themselves. And so we have the trick question in today's gospel.

 

The context of their encounter is the hopelessness of living at the mercy of foreign powers, with no hope of deliverance, no great warrior on the horizon; blind to the possibility that ultimate deliverance, true freedom would be brought in the person of the carpenter from Galilee – in Jesus.

 

So there you have the Cliff Notes summary of today's scripture and the question remains, "What has that to do with us?"

 

Let's look at some current context for our lives today. How did you feel when gas prices were racing up in cost to $4 and $5 dollar levels? Did you feel able to change the course or did you feel at the mercy of international and corporate powers?

 

How did you feel when the mortgage crisis hit and the culpability of banking institutions in the housing collapse was made known and clear to be appallingly malicious and rapacious? Did you feel able to make a difference or did you feel at the mercy of institutional powers?

 

How did you feel when you realized that we were going down the slippery slope of recession and none of our leaders would own up to it and the policies that brought it about? Could you do anything or did you feel at the mercy of uncaring governmental powers?

 

How are you feeling in the rollercoaster debacle of the worldwide stock market, and the collapse of credit, and what it means for life today and for the foreseeable future? Do you feel in charge of your destiny or do you feel at the mercy of powers?

 

The Associated Pres reported this week, "The world's poorest people will be hungrier, sicker and have fewer jobs as a result of the global financial crisis, and cash-strapped aid agencies will be less able to help… The charities that provide food, medicine and other relief … say cutbacks have already started, but it will take months or more before the full impact is felt in the poorest countries…"

 

Sorry. When I began writing this sermon I didn't set out to be depressing, and I may have achieved that with some of you. But I do want us to realize that we, too, all of us, live at the mercy of powers beyond ourselves as our forbearers did in their day; powers mediated by individuals, institutions, computer buying and selling programs, governments, etc; many of whom operate solely in terms of their own self-interest.

 

We are all at the mercy of powers beyond ourselves, we all live at the mercy of forces outside ourselves, so "What do we do? Do we wait for deliverance? Do we give in to the cynicism of the age? Do we buy into the Greed Creed of the powerful? Despair? Hope? Look in the usual places for a savior who will make it all better, make it all like it was? Or do we go back to the basics, to what we know and believe and have bet our lives on day in and day out until this very day?

 

In the church calendar we are creeping up on Advent, just a few short weeks away when we prepare to cele­brate the Incarnation. Remember that God did send the Messiah. That God did redeem the world. That the baby grew up, that he gave his all for us, and that he is coming again to judge the world – with a judgment of light, not of darkness, a judgment of hope, not despair, a judgment of life, not of death. It is a judgment of rejoicing, not of weeping, a judgment that "none shall hurt in all my holy mountain…" It is the judgment of the God who is Creator, Savior, and Power of Life.

 

So where do you look for the power to claim your life, the power to live your life, the power to share the stuff of your life your life with those in need?

 

Look to the One who is faithful and will deliver and keep on keeping on; doing what you know and believe is good and right and just and true; and sharing some of what you have that others may have some too. And God who is faithful and just will deliver.

 

Proper 22- October 5, 2008 "Money"

Sermon: Sunday October 5, 2008 Proper 22 year A Matthew 21:33-46
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

I recently visited a website, www.pennyearned.com.” Perhaps this was a giving in to two days of stock market collapse and the media focus on such. I could not escape the reality of giving in to the temptation of focus on MONEY! “Money makes the world go ‘round” is one of the oldest of sayings, and right now there seems to be a whole lot of uncertainty about how well the world may be going ‘round, particularly if one approaches the world with such a view that money is the primary thing that makes the world go ‘round. So, I visited such websites and found there are 15 top songs of all time written on the subject of money. I share the top 5:
Take the Money and Run, Steve Miller Band
Why don’t you get a Job, Offspring
Can’t tell me nothing, Kanye West
Money for Nothing, Dire Straits
Money, Pink Floyd

In each of these “masterpieces” of music, various world views about money are shared! Everything from the reality that to make your way in the world with security you need money, to the abuse and ill effects of having too much money, to the sometimes seeming absurdity of who gets money for seemingly trivial acts, to the fantasy of landing more money than we ever dreamed or imagined as a goal in life, and finally one song even raises the possibility of the interplay between God, our money, and responsibility. (“Can’t tell me nothing” by Kanye West.) One thing can be said for sure, as a people we do actually need some money to make our way, and to another extreme we often are invited into a world view that money actually can bring us happiness, security, well-being and utopia.
We are entering the season of our annual stewardship program! This you will hear much about in the coming weeks! For some, this season invites us inevitably into a conversation about money, for after all, an unavoidable reality of such a program is asking us to look once more at money! For some, one approach to such a conversation can be “cut and dried.” Money makes the church’s mission go! It is true we need money to make the church’s life go! To some this is a seemingly easy conversation with some difficult money realities. Here at the Cathedral, for example, the treasurer reports to us that as per our last year’s budget, we allocated $954,000 to carry out our mission, pay our salaries, fund our programs, pay our utilities, maintain our buildings, and take our part in diocesan and national church life and missions. Where did this money come from? From the faithful and generous response of parishioners, $634,000 came through pledges, direct contributions and open offerings! This, by the way, is an amazing increase of 20% since 2005, when this same number was $532,000. Thank you and thanks be to God! Where else does this money come from? Because of generous and thoughtful stewards, $216,000 comes to us through estate and planned gifts that generate income from interest on reasonable endowment monies that can be used to help carry out our mission. Another $104,000 comes from principal of endowment monies, which of course is a mixed blessing. This figure does not account for other withdrawals to meet unplanned emergency maintenance items. The blessing of this $104,000 being many churches do not have such funds to draw from. The challenge is the more you take the quicker that money is exhausted, the lower the principal, and the less interest income generated that you are relying upon for other parts of the “pie” to make up the total budget.
Money! If the first part of that conversation is “cut and dried,” then in terms of the conversation for some rests reasonably in a world view that to rely on principal means that “we do not have enough” money long term to do things the way we are doing them, or “we do have enough” money to do what we are doing, but not without long term consequences. From a “money” standpoint then, as we take seriously the challenge of proclaiming God’s Kingdom, our challenge is to figure out how to fund our cause and/or cut our costs and do so in such a way that we do not find ourselves having “stopped being the Church” Jesus calls us to be! It is just that “clear cut.”
NOW, if Stewardship were just about money, this lengthy sermon would be over! If I believed for a second the “cut” really is that “clear,” I would move on, no literally move on. But lest I fail you as a priest and we fail one another as sojourners on a spiritual path, let us remind one another about what the scriptures reveal to us about money and the Stewardship of our resources! Stewardship is about spirituality! It is about our relationships, our relationships with an abundantly generous God, and our relationships with one another! The practice of our stewardship is our opportunity to walk a holy walk where our spirit is lifted because we are walking a path that draws us closer to God and to one another! If we do not hold out that spiritual truth, we are missing the point of God’s dream for his creation. If we do not lift this spiritual truth up for one another, we are missing an opportunity to lift one another up!
The parable of the landowner who carefully invests in establishing a superb vineyard with heavy investment in the finest of soil, most solid fence to protect it from corruption, a state of the art winepress to ensure fine quality, and a watchtower to secure it long term, reminds the listeners of the day of the great investment God has made to the keepers of his promises. The investment is sincere, of great quality, and is created in the hope of the finest of fruit being produced. The responsibility then becomes those who are entrusted to work with the promise, the struggle for the listeners of the day would be Jesus clear reading that those entrusted with the promise had lost sight of the gracious investment. So blinded had they become that they themselves could not even see clearly enough to recognize the owner’s son in their very midst! They had lost sight of the sound investment! Instead of responding to the investment with taking care and part in producing the finest of fruit, they instead produced violence and prejudiced. How then do we respond to the fine investment entrusted to us that is God’s graceful dream for us and for the world?

The Bible states a specific obligation to “tithe” — that is, to give back to God one-tenth of what we have received from God. One–tenth! Ten percent! The Bible sets the bar very high — maybe too high for most of us to think about at first. This is an Old Testament standard that reminded an agrarian people that the first fruits (that is the best of their harvest) were to be given in thanksgiving to God for, after all, that which they reaped were gifts from God, that which we reap are gifts from God. This spiritual practice is a life practice, and one that we can step toward and maybe even beyond.

Jesus’ engagement with the young rich man serves as an invitation to further examine our hearts. The rich man is smart enough to see in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom a taste of wholeness for himself in heart, body, and soul. He wants to be, desires to be a follower who can give his heart to the cause of God’s Kingdom. Jesus’ challenge for him to divorce his heart from his possessions is too much for him, he at the last cannot let go, his things are HIS things. Jesus is empathetic, his heart literally breaks because he knows the young man seems to have a foretaste of the rewards of participating in God’s Kingdom of abundance, but cannot tear himself away from his possessions! Jesus, it seems, wants his followers to understand that all of it, every last thing we have, is gifted to us by God. Maybe the rich young man didn’t think Jesus’ promise of God’s abundance was enough for him to be able to let go of the security of what he thought was enough. When we believe it is ours alone, our hearts are torn! Perhaps you feel this way sometimes; I know I do.

When my son Dillon was a toddler and being introduced to the practice and experience of receiving communion, he once approached the altar area to receive. Peeking into the chalice as it was coming near he noticed the chalice was almost empty. I am certain his young mind jumped to an obvious and concerning conclusion as he expressed loudly, “There’s none left, it’s empty!” His fear, of course, was that there wouldn’t be enough for him! As the acolyte filled the chalice in front of us, I was so grateful to know in my heart and to be able to whisper to him, “See Dillon, there’s more, and there’s more where that came from!” God’s love is like that.

As you enter this time of stewardship for our annual giving program, may I suggest we cannot ignore the realities of money, but more importantly such times are ripe with opportunities to ponder God’s abundance of grace experienced in our personal lives! Time and time again, Jesus reminds his disciples of the magnanimity of God’s abundant grace! We are reminded time and time again that just when we think we’ve got God figured out, we quickly realize the box we’ve sought to put him in just may be a bit small! It’s never a worry in God’s Kingdom that there will never be enough, enough grace, enough forgiveness, enough love, enough! You see, there’s more where that came from! God is like that.

Proper 21/Pentecost 20

The Ven. Richard I Cluett

One of the pleasures in ministry I was afforded when I was with you full-time was to celebrate the annual Altar Guild Eucharist. In May 2006 I spoke to the members about a woman who was an altar guild member at Christ Church in Corning, NY, where I served for nearly seven years.

In the narthex of Christ Church, which is a dark shadowy place, there are some small stained glass windows memorializing, remembering certain parishioners. One window, if my memory serves me, contains a vase of flowers and some altar linens. As you might imagine the window was given to honor the work of the Altar Guild. It was given by a woman who had served on an altar guild for 65 of her then 75 years.

It symbolized her own vocation and the ministry of all members of the altar guild, who carry out the tasks of setting the table, doing the dishes, and arranging the flowers, making the sanctuary beautiful for God and for the people of God.

It is interesting to note that she was a woman of enormous wealth, who in her own home, paid others to set the table, do the dishes, and arrange the flowers. But for the ministry of the altar, for the sacramental ministry of the community of Jesus, no task was too menial, no job too humble. For 65 years she polished, prepared and then put away Holy Things.

I spoke to the altar guild in that little homily about the integral work of the altar guild which is to make sure the linens are cleaned and pressed, the vessels are cleansed, polished and in place, the sacramental bread available, the wine ready to be poured, and the vestments laid out – and in that work there is a privileged discipline, a commitment of time and energy, and a gift of love.

I was reminded of that woman and the service of the altar guild, as well as the service and ministries of so many others in this parish and elsewhere, by the parable in today’s gospel lesson of the two brothers and what it means to do the work of a disciple.

What is it that they say? Something like, “The world is run by those who show up?” Well, the work of a disciple is showing up to do the work of Jesus: feeding, clothing, housing, visiting, holding, praying… touching the lives of those who need them touched – just as Jesus did.

We heard the Apostle Paul write in the Letter to the Philippians, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross.

Most of what you and I are asked by God to do will keep us far, far, far away from death – even death on a cross. But we are asked to show up and serve – serve God’s people, serve the needs of the kingdom, serve for the sake of the Gospel. It may require a little death of self – selfish interests, needs, and wants, but probably it will not require much more than that.

Roger Lovette, a Baptist minister, tells of the time that his son sent him a bulletin from the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. One Sunday he stood in a long line of visitors to listen to Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school. He stayed for the worship service and sent his dad the service leaflet. There was a notice in the bulletin: Rosalynn Carter will clean the church next Saturday. Jimmy Carter will cut the grass and trim the shrubbery.

It’s not always the one who talks or preaches or teaches or has power who reflects the work of Jesus. Sometimes it is the one who shows up on a hot Saturday afternoon to dust the pews, take out the trash, cut the grass, cook at the meal center, or hammer a nail in a flood home, pray for someone – making the world a little better for Christ’s sake.

And we don’t show up for what we want to get out of showing up and following through on our personal “Yes, Lord.” It would be easy to get that wrongful idea from the Philippians passage, “Therefore God highly exalted him…” There is to be no quid pro quo, no “I’ll do this if you do that.” No, no.

All there will be is the deep down knowledge that we have done no more and no less than what we ought to have done. We have shown up for the Gospel’s sake, shown up for the welfare of God’s people, shown up for building of God’s kingdom, and we have done some of the work of Jesus. We have allowed, for this moment in time, the same mind to be in us that was in Christ Jesus. And that is all we are asked to do, and all that we are able to do will be sufficient for the day.

This is how we will work out our own salvation, because God is at work in us.

But, you know, we are human. We’re not perfect. We have so many demands on us. We have so much for which we are responsible. Sometimes it just feels impossible to show up. Too busy. Too tired. Too worried. Too stressed. Too, too. And we don’t go. Sometimes even if we have said that we would, we don’t. Kind of like that brother. We’re only human, right? There is only so much of me to go around. It’s a matter of prioritizing…

Actually, it is all about prioritizing. Life is about prioritizing. Discipleship, too, is about prioritizing. And we do have the ability to say “No”, don’t we? A God-given ability to make a choice.

Stephen Bayne, a wise bishop and saint of this church wrote: God put freedom into his created universe in order that the universe could respond to his love with an answering love of its own...He put into the created universe a principle of choice; and He paid a two-fold price for that. First, He limited his own freedom to have things his own way. Second, he committed himself to having to win out of freedom what he could easily have commanded as a right. Why did he do this? He did it because God is love and because love needs an answering love of its own.

God’s love of you seeks a freely given answering love. What will you answer? When God calls will you choose to show up?

Pentecost 18/Proper 19

Matthew 18
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

The Rev. William Miller in his book, “The Gospel according to Sam, Animal Stories for the Soul,” tells of an experience he witnessed while on a mission trip with a youth group he was leading in Galveston, Texas. He tells a story of taking his youth group to a miniature golf range after a long day of service projects. There in front of them is a five year old boy with an older man, perhaps his grandfather. The man whose face is weathered perhaps suggested a man of the seas, a fisherman or shrimper. The boy proceeded to play his game, hacking repeatedly on a weathervane-themed hole. The object to get the ball through a passageway in the weathervane, coordinating your strike so that the arms of the vane would not impede the ball! Well, time after time, stroke after stroke, the unforgiving weathervane knocked the ball back to the little boy! The group of teens grew impatient when finally the little boy got the ball onto the other side! Finally! Yet on the other side, the horror continued. The boy slapped and hacked at the ball! Off of a bench, innocent bystanders, and finally off of the plastic Octopus gunslinger mounted on a nearby hole! Finally, the boy picked up the ball, put it in the hole, threw his putter into the air and declared, “A two!” The weathered face of the gentlemen with the young boy tightened and he said, “Now you know you didn’t get a two.” Bill Miller writes, “At that the boy looked right up at him recognizing the mess he’d made of the hole, a bogey to the fourth power, as close to par as a distant galaxy is to earth, and asked, “Won’t you give me a two?”

Miller continues, “I believe it was Jung who said, “the brighter the halo, the smellier the feet,” for even the best among us have gone to the dogs. If the truth be told, we’ve made a mess of most of the course, and we missed the mark more often than not. There’s no use pretending we even belong at the tee. Nonetheless, for some strange reason, God can be trusted to look down and write on the only scorecard that matters – an undeserved, unmerited, unbelievable par. God cheats on our behalf and gives us a two. “My grace is sufficient,” God has said.

In today’s Gospel lesson according to Matthew, we pick up our theme of last week, where Jesus is in the midst of teaching his disciples about the cornerstone on which God’s Kingdom is to be built – that is the cornerstone of forgiveness. You’ll remember that last week Jesus, that while giving his disciples a mechanism to reach out with intention to forgive those of the church who had aggrieved them, he also set as a foundation that to be disciples of the kingdom was to have a heart and world-view that seeks at all costs to forgive! Forgiveness, Jesus seems to be saying, is the power that holds together, that union with God and with one another is far more powerful than alienation. So, how hard do we go about the business of forgiveness? Very, very hard! So hard that even the most difficult and alienated among us are worthy to be treated in Kingdom principle as the mission field (a Gentile or tax collector), for God’s preference is for the lost!

In today’s scripture, Peter, who once again seems a step behind the action, in a follow up question, naively, or maybe even stubbornly begs the question…“now Jesus, tell this again? How many times do we forgive someone who has offended? Seven? (That seems a lot). No Jesus says…….seventy times seven! Now, Peter’s question, through the lens of a human sense of justice, seems reasonable. Perhaps you are aligned with Peter in this thought process about one who repeatedly offends and seems undeniably resistant to a path of forgiveness. First, like us, experience probably has taught Peter that there must be limits to patience with misbehaviors! How many times does this person get away with this after all? Okay perhaps Peter thinks to himself…seven times seem a reasonable limit!

Or – perhaps one has to ask if it is in my best interest to seek forgiveness when it seems clear to me that my brother’s and sister’s repentance is suspicious at best, and a path toward change seems iffy at best!

This, we all would agree, is legitimate questioning on Peter’s behalf! Particularly in a human experience that leads to a worldview and understanding of justice that may even lead to our need to “count,” keep score as it were!

When I asked a friend recently, tongue in cheek, “How many times are we to forgive? Seven?" The response, was, “I think a lot more than that and I am pretty sure my spouse is counting!” When it comes to forgiveness, however, Jesus’ response does not address Peter’s concern with an “economy of counting,” instead Jesus’ response takes the conversation from the sphere of ordinary human relationships to the mysterious realm of the holy.

For the kingdom followers, the cornerstone of forgiveness will not be found in such an economy of counting, but rather on a radical, unprecedented, even seemingly irrational ethic of forgiveness! One which will challenge them and challenges us deeply in the human sphere! For at the heart of the matter lies a reality that in God’s world-view, a world-view of mercy, even the most undeserved will find new life through pardon!

C.S. Lewis wrote, “The essential act of mercy is to pardon; and pardon’s very essence is to recognize guilt and the ill-dessert of the recipient!”

To live in the Kingdom is to come to grips that God’s heart is a merciful heart, there is no economy of score that makes any traditional sense, for the unforgiving courses of life, where we my be hacking above what any scorecard would hold, “God indeed seems to cheat on our behalf!” Par…or even better sometimes “My grace is sufficient.”

This radical merciful forgiveness seems to be what Jesus invites his followers to understand and to form a heart for! Not only will God’s grace be sufficient, but it is beyond understanding, especially when understanding is built upon a system of human expectations and an economy of justice built upon “counting.”
The parable of the unforgiving servant provides the theological framework that grounds forgiveness at the center as we engage the astounding magnanimity of the King!

After all, as a King decides to be faithful about his business and in his accounting of all his transactions, he calls to his court all those who have been entrusted with the workings of his Kingdom business (slaves and servants).

Here we encounter one such worker of the Kingdom who seems to have held back profit for his own benefit! How much! Oh about fifteen years worth of salary! The legal consequences for such an action would of course be immediate death, but the King in a moment of anger, thinks to send him and his family into slavery. But the servant implores, begs for a deal! What comes next, of course, is the unheard of, unbelievable, even irrational action of the King! He pardons the act and sets him free! What he will do with this amazing, irrational, freedom from pardon, of course, is the teaching for kingdom followers. The unforgiving servant will squander it, ignore it, abuse it, and clearly not understand it! When in similar circumstance with roles reversed, one who owes him a day’s salary, he will follow the letter of the legal law and prosecute! The unforgiving servant has missed the opportunity for the heart of the matter! And so for Jesus’ listeners, they are implored not to do the same! For they live in a Kingdom where God’s Mercy of Pardon is at play! They know themselves they are undeserving of such grace and yet they receive it, and so they too must live with such a radical ethic of forgiveness!

Jesus understood the ethic of his day, the economy of counting, a justice system based where “the counting of things” often meant a “settling of scores.” The ethic of forgiveness is polar opposite the ethic of “settling scores,” or of revenge. So, Jesus implores, we’ve had enough of settling scores, you must work toward an ethic of forgiving from the heart!

And so you and I are invited to the magnanimity of God’s Kingdom! Cornerstone built upon forgiveness! The hard road of forgiveness calls us away from a scorecard of transgression! “God’s mercy is sufficient!” As we receive it, so we are open to the possibilities of freedom that comes through forgiving from the heart! Again, C.S. Lewis…“By remembering where we stand (with God’s ethic of forgiveness), by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint or exception, and God means what he says.

Pentecost 17/Proper 18

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

A middle aged woman, single mother! Faithful to her Church, active from her birth! Raising her two young boys and doing the best she can! Bright and cheerful, pleasant and lovely. This woman could be seen at any moment of time pouring lemonade or coffee at any given “coffee hour” at church. Or she could be seen leading the Sunday school children from Children’s Chapel into worship. Or she could be seen on Wednesday nights for bible study. Or she could be seen setting or clearing the altar for worship, preparing the altar with fresh cut flowers taken from her yard! Or she could be seen taking her part on the food ministry that provided young men dying of AIDS with a bit of nourishment and care.

A middle-aged woman, bright and cheerful, caring and compassionate servant, humble, everyday member of the Church! An ordinary churchgoer trying to live a life of Christian service some might say, a disciple of the community some of other traditions might say.

Then one day this woman takes a young seminarian into her confidence! Quickly revealed that behind the curtain of this model “church member” is struggle, torment, heartbreak, and longing for some sort of reconciliation with herself, one of her children, and the community of faith to which she belongs!

It seems one night her baby boy, whom she had raised in the Church, brought to Sunday school, served lemonade at church picnics and coffee hours, led from Children’s Chapel singing hymns of praise, brought to vacation bible school, her baby boy who she fed and clothed, loved and nurtured, protected and cared for, one night found himself high as a kite on drugs and in the wrong crowd at the wrong time. Her baby boy, in a drug deal gone badly, became the aggressor in a conflict and in a drug-clouded event committed violent crime that would land him in prison for the rest of his life!

We tried so hard when we knew he was going down this path! I begged and pleaded with him to straighten out his life, I couldn’t reconcile who he was becoming with the boy I thought I had raised him to be! He would not listen to me! I was desperate! I brought with me friends from the Church, his Sunday school teachers and confirmation mentors, we begged him to go to rehab, we shared with him how grieved and broken our hearts were that he was so tortured by his addiction to drugs and how his behaviors were destroying his own life and his relationships with those of us who love him! But he would not listen – he could not listen!

I prayed and prayed with my friends in Church, bringing it to prayer! We prayed and prayed at Church, and some of us still do! But we couldn’t save him!

A middle-aged mother now visits her son in prison, but struggles to find a way within her to find reconciliation with a son now alienated from those who loved, raised, and nurtured him, the alienation being a physical barrier, walls, a cell! Isolation from what he once knew! A middle-aged mother, a prayer group of church members, now pray to make sense, to reconcile who he once was with who he had become, how he became “lost” from the womb of the good Christian community that surrounded him!

And in the mother’s honest wrangle and lament is the ever-present force-filled struggle to continue to find a place of forgiveness and reconciliation! We pray together now! Once in a while I can take a friend from church and we pray together with him! In some ways he is my baby boy again, frightened, vulnerable, he needs me! But still my heart is broken, but my love cannot be broken, he is my son!

The struggle of human brokenness is one many of us know and are familiar with! The struggle of lives of faith, hope, nurture, and care, formation of lives of faith are what we in the Church hang our very being upon! An ethic of community creates for us the expectation of accountability and responsibility for one another! As Christian folk, part of that ethic hangs on our belief that to be witnesses to Jesus we must hold one another accountable to faithful lives and to an ethic of forgiveness. Jesus, when he invited his disciples to “pick up their cross and follow him,” knew that such a life was not an easy one, and to live it would mean a primal ordering of community! The disciples would need one another, just as we today in the Church NEED one another!

The Gospel lesson today speaks squarely to the degree of difficulty of following Jesus as a community of Kingdom Ideal followers! The listeners of Matthew’s Gospel, early followers of the way, were learning how to live together, how they needed one another, and in this section of Jesus’ discourse, they are learning how their need for one another would also demand of one another accountability and responsibility!

So what happens when one member of this community of faith (the church) offends another by not living by the ideal! First they are to be confronted, one on one! How absolutely uncomfortable for the 21st century reader who is a member of a community of faith! Confront one another! This is difficult at best! It is sometimes much easier first to gain another’s perspective by sharing with another the frustration and offense that we have endured. The hope is, of course, that the other will see things our way, show the appropriate display of hurt and maybe anger in a moment of sympathy, and if all things are equal perhaps even share that with someone else. But not for Jesus. His formula for accountability to one who has offended seems to ask us to consider first, the difficult (albeit uncomfortable) task of going straight on to try to reconcile our differences.

Second, Jesus suggests, that for the early community of faith living into an ideal of Kingdom discipleship, if this does not bring about reconciliation, indeed, take two or three folks from the community of faith with you! They, serving as witnesses, not to take sides mind you, but to be listeners, to help discern a dispute, to help make sense of it. And if you think ideally, perhaps having non-participant judgment, perhaps even as mediators. Risky! Somehow I don’t believe Jesus imagined a system like the people’s court, where we hand our differences over to an unemployed judge who makes millions by processing people’s disputes on syndicated cable television, but probably in the ideal, Jesus assumes those participating are participating in an agreed-upon value system of non-judgmental listening!

Third, if still it appears that a breach occurred and cannot be resolved, bring it to the Church, the community as a whole! Now the 21st century experience listens with great discomfort! Imagine airing our “dirty laundry” publicly! If one imagines a court of common pleas set up in Sayre Hall, this, I predict, would not be the case, at least not formally! However, for the early church believers, to have the strong ethic of the community being united in purpose and reconciliation is clearly of primary importance!

What will we do! How hard will we try! To what extent will we go to demonstrate the primary teaching of Jesus to be one in community and in purposes of living out the Kingdom Principles!

Now if that doesn’t work, treat them as tax collectors and Gentiles!

Again! How far will the early community of believers be asked to go to reconcile and be in agreement for purpose of living out Kingdom principles!

For the 21st century mind, we read quickly that Jesus teaches the believers to treat the unreconciled as tax collectors and Gentiles! Remember, this section of scripture is bracketed by the teaching of Jesus of the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the unforgiving debtor! The followers of Jesus have watched and listened to him spend a lifetime and a sacrificial death for the purpose of embracing the lost!

The punch line comes in Jesus’ response to Peter………how many times do we forgive one who has offended? Seventy times seven.

Like that middle-aged woman so devoted to the church and the church so devoted to her and her son, she seems to understand that, though broken-hearted and clearly aggrieved, her love poured out, inviting the community of faith she knows into that shedding of love, she and they fiercely seek reconciliation!

So it seems to be for the early followers of Jesus and so it seems to be for her and her fellow church members, and so it seems to be for us! An ethic of forgiveness and reconciliation is a worldview of forgiveness and reconciliation!

Jesus knew at all costs to hold one another accountable to the ethic is to have our hearts driven by it and by doing so, we fiercely and tirelessly pursue those who have become lost to us!

Jesus knew this as the antidote to alienation and isolation! We can know this too!

Amen.

Pentecost 15/Proper 16

The Ven. Richard I Cluett
Matthew 16:13-2

Two weeks ago I stood here discussing the passage where Jesus said to Peter, “You of little faith”, focusing on the seemingly puny nature of his faith, at least in that moment of water walking. Today we have Peter’s shining moment when he proclaims the true identity of this Jesus of Nazareth. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Of course, if we read the story all the way through we know that Peter didn’t really have a clue what that identity would mean for Jesus, or for the disciples, or for the world. Next week he will get it wrong again, and Jesus will say to him, “Get behind me, Satan.”

So perhaps it would be good to note that Peter is not the point here. It would be useful to remember, I think, that old definition of what a saint seen in a stained glass window is. “A saint is someone the sun/the Son shines through.” And Peter was a capital S Saint.

It is also a pretty good description of what a disciple is, whether she be an ordinary day-to-day disciple or a capital D Disciple such as Peter. A disciple is someone Jesus, the Son, shines through. Maybe that’s the point here. What can we see of Jesus, what can we learn of Jesus in this person named Peter, or for that matter in the one named Alice or Bob or Sally or Fred or Rick, or…You?

Jesus asked, “Who do they say that I am.” Of course, “I am” is one of the names of God. So how many names can you come up with for Jesus; the ways people over the centuries have identified him. In scripture alone there are more than 100 names. If you are so moved, you can Google or Wiki “names for Jesus” and come up with a wagonload filled to overflowing. I could use today’s sermon time, and more, simply by reciting the names that come easily to mind.

Names such as Emmanuel, the Good Shepherd, the Great High Priest, the Anointed one, the Messiah, the Beloved, the Lamb, the Bridegroom and on and on and on. Not to worry, I am stopping.

Then Jesus asks Peter, the big one. “Who do you say that I am?”

We have been hearing all week about the great “Spectacle at Saddleback Church”, wherein Pastor Rick Warren examined the faith of the two presidential nominees, John McCain and Barack Obama. He sat them down one at a time on the stage of the church, in front of a couple thousand evangelical Christians, and some millions more watched on television. And he asked them direct questions about their faith in Jesus and how it affects their lives and how it will affect their presidency and the policies they work to put in place. The core question from which all other questions flowed was, “Who is Jesus Christ for you?”

The media pundits have parsed each word and examined each phrase. Conservatives have used their litmus tests, the liberals theirs, and the libertarians, too. I would expect that Muslims and Jews listened carefully as well, even though their names for God, Allah and Jehovah, never did come up.
Others have debated whether the questions put to the nominees for President of the United States of America were more important than the questions about leading the nation and their ideas and plans to work on problems of economy, justice, and world peace.
But for us, for you and me, regular day-to-day disciples of Jesus, the core question Jesus asked of Peter “Who do you say that I am?” is also our core question. “Who do you say Jesus is?”

What do you say to that? Can you answer that without having to resort to formulaic phrases, or if you do use them, can you explain what you mean by them? Who is Jesus for you? Really.

By virtue of being a disciple you are also a saint, one of the saints of God, someone the light is to shine through. (Light is another name for Jesus, “He is the light of the world.”) By looking at you what do we see of Jesus? By listening to you, what do we learn of Jesus?

Now, there we have it. There’s the rub. It’s come down to this, today. Can you tell us who Jesus is for you, not what others have said, but rather who he is for you? What can you say Jesus means to you? What difference is that faith making in your life? Specifically. Practically. In your real life, your day-to-day life, your behavior, your attitudes, your way of looking at things, at the world, what you do and how you do it. What can you say of Jesus? What can we see of Jesus… in you?

To whom do you testify, to what do you testify? What can Jesus build on your faith, on your life? Are you a rock? Or have you built your house on shifting sand. Wow! It’s starting to get personal, isn’t it? So much for bible stories of long, long ago. What faith story is being written by your faith in Jesus Christ?
That’s a bit daunting, isn’t it? Maybe it is too big for this relaxed time provided by the dog days of August, the last days of a summer’s respite. A bit too serious for this season of books on the beach, or hikes in the woods, or little round white balls on the golf course. Maybe we can come back to this in the fall, after vacation is over, when the kids are back in school? Maybe we can tell Jesus, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Or not. Actually, it’s true that there is no time like the present, no moment better than the now.

Do you remember that parable in Matthew 25 about the ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom (one of the ways of knowing Jesus), about being ready for him when he comes, having their lamps at the ready, oil filled, wicks trimmed, ready to be lighted at a moments notice? When he came, some were not ready and lost out.

“And while they went to buy (the oil), the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut… Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Matt 25:10, 13

Or in Luke 12:19-20 where the rich man says, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Some translations read, “… your soul is required of you.”

You get the point. The scripture brings us, today, this very day, to this question, “Who do you say Jesus is – for you?”

And how will you answer?

Pentecost 13/Proper 14A

The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
August 10, 2008
1Kings 19:9-18 + Matthew 14:22-33

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Why, indeed.

All the evidence to the contrary – Jesus was right there on the water, and Peter doubted. That one little niggling doubt crept in and he was a goner – in the drink, floundering around, flailing away, and crying out in fear. Wanting to believe, trying to believe, believing that he did believe, still down he went. Dunked by doubt.

Anyone here identify with that sinking feeling Peter had? How many times has it happened to you? Why do you doubt? As the old song goes, “I don’t know why, I just do.”

You’re just sailing along in your life, secure in the faith that all is well, that all will be well, that whatever happens, even if there is a problem, it can be managed, it will be handled, you can take care of it.

But who are you fooling? Do you really know yourself to be that take charge guy, that supremely competent gal, that “come hell or high water” I-can-do-it person? Sure you are!

Or do you, deep down, have that cold, hard knot, or maybe for you it is instead a swirling, chaotic stomach churning mass, whichever it is, that area of doubt or fear that’s always there, waiting to creep in, right at the wrong moment, and there you go, down! Just like Peter. Dunked by Doubt.

Miracles are mysteries. We can profitably set our nets a little deeper to see what can be caught here. Let’s come at this story another way – through belief instead of doubt.

What do you mean when you say, “I believe…”? Are you saying that you believe and therefore your life will conform to that belief, and be guided by that belief, and that events will progress according to that belief, and all will be right with your world?

Or are you saying that you agree with or assent to a certain set of principles as in “I agree with Dr. Einstein that e=mc2”? And that life will follow along logically and orderly and well, based on that belief?

Or are you saying along with author Diane Eck that by saying “I believe…” you are saying, “I give my heart. I give my heart to God. I give my heart to this my beloved. I give my heart to Jesus. And because I give my heart to Jesus, I will do my best to live his way.”

Following Jesus gives us the best chance to live a life of meaning and purpose, and to be on the receiving end of mercy, forgiveness, grace, companionship, support and love. The more we follow him, the more we invest our heart, the more we are in his company, the more we walk in his way, the more we will experience the fruits of faith, and be able to trust the one to whom we give our heart.

Trust follows experience. When in your life have you experienced that grace, that mercy, that forgiveness? Would you have known those things had you not been seeking Jesus, enjoying his company, and being in communion with him and with his community?

Does faith, does belief, does trust guarantee success? Not hardly.

Many of you know that Tony and I do some conference work in an organization concerned with the well-being of people who work in the church. The name of the program is Credo, the Latin word that beings the creed, meaning “I believe”. What we do in that program is provide some resources and models so participants can get back in touch with what they meant when they give their heart to God and committed their lives to helping build the kingdom and care for God’s people. The clergy and professional church workers are living proof that it is possible to lose from time to time what we desire and prize so highly. And also possible to find it again.

If it can happen to Peter it can happen to you. If it can happen to Elijah the greatest of the prophets it can happen to you. What do you think Elijah was doing in that cave other than having a dark day of doubt, thinking for a brief moment that maybe Baal might indeed be the stronger god.

Let’s take the heart image a little further. A function of the heart is to move the flow of blood, the power of being, up to our head and down to our feet and out to our hands and fingers.

Faith and trust also have to do with movement. They come from that act of giving our heart to another, and that movement that leads to another and another and another and faith is thereby strengthened and trust is thereby built and life is can be lived in a way that gives life and makes us willing from time to time to risk.

That trust, that willingness to risk stepping outside the boat, to move closer to the one to whom he has given his heart is how I think of faith. And Peter has that.

So why does Jesus address him as "you of little faith"? Peter has a little faith. Like you and me. I’ve got a little, sometimes it is not enough, but most times it is what my father called an “elegant sufficiency”. Most of the time it is enough, sufficient for the day, even if every now and then, it wavers, it shrinks, it flounders, it flails, even to the point of sinking. Most days it moves me along in his way, sometimes it moves me outside my little zone of comfort, moves me to risk on behalf of God, God’s kingdom, and Jesus’ followers who he also calls people of “little faith.”

So how much faith do you need to make a difference in your life, or even to change the world? Just a little. You don't have to talk yourself into absolute confidence that anything in particular will happen. That's a good thing, since none of us really knows the future, or the heart of another person, much less the heart of God. Faith isn't about knowing that, faith is about knowing our own heart.

Faith is willingness to risk. It's willingness to take that step out of the boat, whether you think you'll sink or swim. It proceeds from the kind of love that, despite all of the butterflies in one's stomach, makes a person willing to say “I believe.”

The good news of today’s gospel is that even when the seas rise so high we are in danger of sinking, Jesus is there coming toward us, saying, “it’s me; don’t be afraid”. Jesus is there in that place, in that moment to calm, to quiet, to strengthen, to restore, to save. And that is a first-class miracle.

9 Pentecost ~ Proper 8

Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
Zechariah 9:9-12 + Romans 7:15-25a + Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Sounds nice doesn’t it? Pretty good news, right? Well, let me complicate it a bit for you, as it has been for me.

On June 22nd we heard Jesus say, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

On June 15th he said, “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

A couple of weeks before that we heard, “Jesus said. "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven…”

And in the epistle lesson appointed for today we didn’t hear, we have even the great Apostle Paul burdened. “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Does that sound like we would be wearing an easy yoke or carrying a light burden by following Jesus? Not on first hearing, not on second reading, or third… So let’s think about this for a minute to see if we can find that nugget of Gospel Truth, that Good News that Jesus says is “hidden from the wise and the intelligent and been revealed to infants.

After some serious pondering this week, where I have come to is this: This world we live in, you and I, is a tough place.

It can be physically dangerous. Some of us live in places in this valley where it is dangerous to be out and walking the streets at night. Our friends in Kajo Keji live, even today, with the constant threat of the violence of war invading their lives. In too many places and in too many lives physical danger is a daily fact of life.

Life can also be emotionally and relationally dangerous. Earning ones daily bread, providing for one’s family, is for many a boring or repetitious or incredibly stressful or dauntingly demanding or stultifying or seemingly endlessly taxing task. Never having quite enough.

Life seems to be getting too real, too earnest, too hard these days. Gas, heating oil, mortgages. Electricity rates are about to go through the roof. They will double or triple. The cost of living for so many people is rising from worrisome to burdensome levels. Life is hard and getting harder.

We learned this week that we are supposed to have 125% more income in our retirement than when we were working. For 99% of the people, good luck with that!

If getting to the top, or winning the prize in one’s chosen field is your goal, if grabbing the ring, if you are looking for that great payoff, that great payday, that golden retirement, that land of plenty that is just over the hill, just around the corner, this one or certainly the next or the next… if succeeding is one’s life’s goal… we know all too well that there can be huge costs involved.

These are burdens to be borne in the heat of the day. For those of us fortunate enough to be employed there are sacrifices that we will make, either intentionally or blindly. Often we will sacrifice our family at the same time as we try to provide the best we can for them. We deprive them of our very selves, their mother or father, husband or wife, our presence, our support, our care, our love. We are just not home. The kids bear the burden of growing up without us. They are taught by our drive to drive hard themselves to compete and to succeed.

Life is like that. Just ask the kids. How stressed are they? What burdens do they bear as they struggle to learn, to understand, to grow, to become competent, to fit in, to excel, to succeed? I think their burdens either meet or exceed that of their elders.

Are our elected leaders the right ones to lead us? It’s almost time for us in this nation of ours to take on the role of “The Decider.” Will new leaders take us into the Promised Land, or will they lead us deeper into conflict and contention with other powers and forces in the world, even more war, or deeper into economic difficulties? Will they work to preserve and protect and keep safe this generation’s young and the next and the next? To what yoke will they bind us as a nation?

On this 232nd birthday weekend of our country I turned to the counsel of our first president, George Washington, wrote in his Farewell Address, wondering as I read if our new leaders will hear it and attend to it. He wrote,

“Observe good faith and justice towards all … cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.”

Or will the new leaders continue the current policies that go in another way. Making these choices is no light matter. The burden of democracy, too, must be borne by those who prize its freedom. But bear it we must. Choose we must. And we better be right.

So, dear friends, it does not seem to me that it is the burden of Christ that is heavy and hard. Rather, it is life, itself, that can be burdensome, heavy, and hard, and complicated by our own human nature and our shortcomings.

It is Christ who can be the way and the truth and the light as we go through this life. It is by following him that we have the best chance to not only survive, but to thrive, living lives of purpose, possibility and peace, for one and for all. The yoke of Christ is the better, lighter, easier burden to seek and to willingly, even eagerly place upon ourselves.

A good priest named Dylan put it this way. “… we can say that Jesus' burden is easy and his yoke is light because it is. That I can opt out of the burdens my culture wants to place on me raises my hope that I might be able to opt in to something better, and the Good News is that the best option -- abundant, joyful life, freedom from anxiety, and real, deep, big-enough-for-the-world love is available to us in Christ Jesus.

“We bear (the yoke,) the Cross not as one person alone, but with the whole Body of Christ, and Christ's presence with us brings strength, courage, and peace. When we confess Jesus as Lord… even as we bear the Cross, (we are) restored and freed for eternal and abundant life in service and community with all whom God loves.”

And we can say with Paul, the Apostle “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

These new Christians, being baptized here today with their parents, friends, sponsors and Godparents have, themselves, discovered that way and decided to lead live in that same way.

How else will we make it through? We must take on willingly, even eagerly, that yoke, that cross, that love, and that Way of Christ.

Amen.

5 Pentecost ~ Proper 6 : Time and Again

June 15, 2008

The Ven. Richard I Cluett

Genesis 18:1-15 + Matthew 9:35-10:8

“History is not a straight line going from the beginning to the end, it loops and swirls eventually finding its way back to places it’s been before.” So it has been thought, written, and spoken aloud.

The proof is in today’s gospel reading. Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Tell me that is not a description of the crowds in our own day and time. Can you tell me that people are not harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd? Tell me that we are not, as a people, milling around, going to and fro, seeking here and seeking there for someone who will show us the way out of this difficult time we are in, someone who will provide answers to ALL the problems of the day. Tell me people are not weighted down by the cares and demands of daily life. Tell me job loss and a shrinking job market, decline in housing value, increase in food prices and decrease in food safety, rising gasoline and all energy prices do not rule the daily concerns of the people, to say nothing of ruling of the news media.

Can you tell me people are not harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd? I don’t think so, unless you point to the few who are privileged in the security of their wealth and position.

But I don’t think people are seeking a shepherd. I think people are seeking here, there, and everywhere for a Savior, for someone who will say, “it ain’t so.” Someone who will make it all right. Some-one who will take care of it for us and in the doing will take care of us as well. Think back over the comments and the discussions and the hopes that have surfaced during this political primary season. Who will save us? Do we really expect anyone to save us?

I have learned in my years – all my years – that when stress gets high enough, when the demands of living get hard enough, when the details of life become just tough enough, the ability to see options shrinks dramatically and exponentially.

So we feel distressed in ill-defined ways. We are besieged by anxiety, stress, and fatigue. Our relationships suffer. We have unexplained aches and pains. The flood of daily events seems beyond our control.

Our increasing inability to manage, much less control our lives causes a resulting decrease in our ability to cope, our ability to see options, our ability to plan a future, our ability to see possibilities, our ability to expect something other or better – in other words a decrease in our ability to hope, whether we be a person, a nation or an entire world.

A hard life will do that to you; limit possibilities, vision, and hope for a better future. That sounds like what was going on, too, for Abraham and Sarah. Life’s been hard, that original promise from God to be the beginning of a limitless future for them and their offspring.

“… the word of the Lord came to Abram, He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness… On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…” Genesis 15

But that was a long time ago and now here they sit, in a tent, in the desert, old and childless. Seemingly out of time, out of possibilities, out of hope – just sitting, surviving, waiting to see what will happen to them next – and they know it won’t be good.

Three travelers come, in need of hospitality and refreshment, which they provide. “Then one says, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed…”

Sarah laughed.

Apparently she laughed loudly enough and long enough to be heard. Maybe it was like that Hillary Clinton laugh that the media has enjoyed hearing and lampooning. A loud, hearty, even harsh laugh. In Sarah’s case, at least, she laughed out of disbelief that some-thing so preposterous, so outrageous, so good could finally be hers, could finally be theirs. “Yeah, Right!”

The very idea that God could, that God would… Ridiculous! Unbelievable!

And even here in the gospel, Jesus telling his disciples, “Proclaim the good news… cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”

The very idea! Is that your experience of your discipleship? Is that your expectation – that God could, God would? Is that what you expect from a disciple?

When I was your interim dean, I would get home at the end of a day and Patricia would ask, “How was your day, honey?” And I would say, “Oh, you know, the usual: Proclaimed the good news, cured the sick, raised the dead, cast our two demons. How about you?” And then we would laugh.

Have we so limited our vision; have we so diminished the possibility of the presence and the power of God in life, and in our own lives? Have we have so circumscribed God with the limitations of our own view of what is possible and probable in this world, in this life? I wonder if it is possible at all for us to see God’s hand at work in the world about us, or in ourselves, or even through us on behalf of others.

The Word, with a capital W, which scripture has for us today is that there is reason to hope and reason to expect.

Even if we “see through a glass darkly” at St. Paul puts it, God is God. God reigns. The kingdom is being built. Goodness abounds. Look for it. People are being healed. See it. We are being saved in all kinds of ways in all kinds of situations and problems. See it. Demons and powers are being thrown down – daily. Know it. God reigns.

No matter what it looks like. God reigns. No matter how it feels. God reigns. Should we fail or feel inadequate. God reigns. In our darkest hours. God reigns.

Even if the worst of the worst happens and someone we love dies. God reigns. How? Suffering is ended. Love has been known. We are surrounded by others who love us and are there for us. Even then. God reigns.

No matter what. God could. God would. God will. God reigns.

God reigns. Yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. Amen.

Consider What Is Important

The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch

Isaiah 49:8-16a, Matthew 6:24-34

As if! As if it were possible. As if it were possible simply not to worry about your life. But we have it straight from Jesus himself, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will wear.” So now we all know. We have all heard it from the top. So that’s it then…no more worries. Right? As if!

Actually I prefer the translation, “Do not be anxious,” which is closer to the Greek text. Anxiety is more powerful than worry. Anxiety is what can knock us down flat, take over our lives, keep us up at night, or send us cowering in a corner. “Do not be anxious about your life,” Jesus says.

You know, yesterday was the perfect day for our youth car wash. You may remember that the first Nativity Youth Camp car wash was rained out. I was relieved, because it rescued me from a dilemma. The first date our car wash was scheduled, my daughters needed to be three places at the same time: here for the car wash and on two different softball fields at two different times for two different games. In addition, I had unwisely agreed to a sleepover the night before over in Allentown, which would make it a feat to get them here by the 8:30 am start time. That Saturday was also the day before the Bishop’s visit, so I had scheduled a baptism class and confirmation rehearsal here at the same time. After all, we were all going to be here anyway. It wasn’t doable. I was in a quandary. We had made a commitment to the car wash when we signed our kids up for camp--and we love the car wash. We had also made a commitment to playing softball. Yet, when we signed the girls up we did not know when the games would be scheduled. If we had never missed a softball game this season, it would not have been such an issue. But conflicts had come up more than once. I was anxious.

Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, a rabbi and fabulous children’s author, said in a recent interview that “society does a very good job teaching us how to be consumers and society does a very good job teaching us how to be competitors.” But she goes on to say that most parents also want to know how do we teach our children’s souls? Parents want their children to be “gracious and grateful, to have courage in difficult times, to have a sense of joy and purpose.” I think it is not only parents that want this for their children. I think it is what we all want: to be gracious and generous, to have courage in difficult times, to have a sense of joy and purpose. But we are so skilled at being consumers and competitors that we neglect to nurture our souls. One of the things we consume in our society is activity. As a parent I know the trap of getting involved in too many activities (all of them good ones mind you) and the stress of trying to get it all done. But it is not only parents who are caught in this trap. Society affords each of us with so many opportunities--wonderful opportunities. But we think we can and should have them all. We have little trouble choosing between a good thing and a not so good thing. If I had had to choose between the car wash and cleaning out the basement, it would have been a no-brainer! But when two opportunities we desire pull at us, the temptation is to try to do it all. But we cannot serve two masters and we soon find ourselves on the slippery slope of shifting priorities. How can I choose between the camp carwash and not one but two little league softball games? I can’t. So I try to figure out how to do both. Thus I am relieved when they are all rained out!

I’m sure I am not the only one who lives in this world. We can be so busy getting it all done, that we miss what is important. A wise mentor once told me about sorting out what is urgent and important. Envision a square graph with one axis labeled “important” and the other labeled “urgent.” Most of our activities fall into one of four quadrants. There are those things that are important and urgent, like applying first aid to a bleeding injury. We usually pay attention to these things and get them done. Then there are those things that are unimportant and not urgent, like cleaning all the dust bunnies out from under the chairs in the attic. We are generally good at not giving too much of our time and talent to these things. But it is the other two categories that are misleading. Some things are urgent, but not important. Like those advertisements that I get over the email that offer free shipping if I order now and I feel I have to act even though I hadn’t been planning to buy anything. Or a cell phone that rings in the middle of…(you fill in the blank) and must be answered even though it could wait. Things in this category seduce us into giving them much more of our time and energy than is really needed.

Then there is the final category: those things that are important, but not urgent. Things we back-burner, like finding time to have coffee with a friend, or visiting someone who never gets out, or spending time with God. These things are very important, but because they do not seem urgent, they are easy for us to neglect. As the list of undone things gets longer and our in-boxes more full, our worries increase. A rainy day doesn’t always solve the dilemma.

About the only thing that seems to make me less anxious is age. Some things just don’t worry me as much as they used to because I have lived through them. But is that all there is? Is knowing that I will survive the only rope to grasp when worries about “what next” overwhelm me? Not according to Jesus. He asks us to look around us. Look at the birds of the air. No, really look at them--see them--think about them. What can we learn? This is the power behind his words. Consider the lilies of the fields (and the word here is really wildflowers). Consider-- observe well-- learn something—stop—look—contemplate. This is not about taking time to stop and smell the roses. It’s not about noticing beauty that we may otherwise miss. It is much more profound. Jesus calls our attention to things that are accessible to us, things that are all around us, things that are simply there, like wildflowers. What can wildflowers teach us? Probably much more than we can imagine. In God’s amazing creation, simple flowers display a complex biology that gathers sunlight, converts it into food and energy, and releases life-giving oxygen into the air. And they look pretty nice too. So when we stop and notice wildflowers, we stop and notice God. When we notice God, become aware of God, we know God just a little bit more. After all, knowing God is what it is all about for us.

Jesus reminds us of this ultimate priority, this most important opportunity of all. Do not worry, saying what will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear. Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the Kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well. God is our best opportunity, our first priority, the source of our life. Worry distracts us from God. Anxiety distorts our relationships with others. It divorces us from who we really are. Anxiety gnaws at us, pulls us down into despair, mocks our desire to trust, and teaches us to fear as if fear is what is at the bottom of all life. But we do not profess a life based on fear. We profess a life based on the awesome love of God.

What does life look like when we remember that first and foremost we are loved? As long as we are noticing things, take note that Jesus did not say, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Combating anxiety is not that easy. After all, we are not promised that our days will be trouble free. Jesus doesn’t say, “Your troubles are over.” Rather he says there will be plenty of trouble, “Tomorrow will bring worries of its own, today’s trouble is enough for today.” Or there is the older translation, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” But no evil overcomes God’s love. If we want to be gracious and grateful, to have courage in difficult times, to have a sense of joy and purpose in life, God is a good place to start. God who does not forget us. God who knows that relationship with us is important. God who promises, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” In anxious times, in pleasant times, we do not walk alone. God knows us. God knows what we need. Consider not what is urgent, but what is important. Consider the wildflowers. Take time to contemplate God’s love for you.

Trinity Sunday

May 18, 2008
A Jazz Eucharist
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett

Genesis 1:1-2:4a + 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 + Matthew 28:16-20

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
That could be the Sermon for Trinity Sunday right there. But, lest you get your hopes up… there is more.

As we were having coffee earlier this week, I said to the dean, “I think I will preach on the ineffable mystery of the One we worship as the Triune God.” The was an extended silence into which finally I said, “At least the congregation will awake refreshed and ready for the lively music of the Jazz Band.” At which point he let out his breath and relaxed. But the question for the preacher remained, “What do you say about the Trinity?”

Saint Augustine, one of the greatest minds of the Western World, put his head to thinking about the Trinity. Augustine, a master of words, took fifteen volumes to write his treatise “On the Trinity”, fifteen books that took him over a decade to write.

So what do WE say about these things in just a few homiletical minutes? I want to tell you what I think is the single most important learning about God – and ourselves – that comes from the Trinity. And I will do it this way:

First, a question and a clue: What was the first thing Jesus did when he came out of the desert wilderness after his 40 days learning his identity – that is, besides getting a bath and something to eat?

He called disciples and gathered a community around himself, and except for his final act of sacrifice, he lived in that community and counted on that community his entire ministry. We know that to get the best insight into the nature of God we look at Jesus, so what do we learn about God here, with Jesus in community?

Many years ago, Bishop Mark Dyer and I went one noonday to a regional clergy gathering for bible study. One of the clergy was waiting for him to tell him that he could not stay that day. He had to meet his wife and daughter at the doctor's to hear the results of some tests his daughter had undergone. If he could come later he would. He went off, the clergy gathered, Bishop Mark told them about the reasons for the absence, and the first thing we did was to hold that family in prayer - for quite some time. We then went on with lunch and bible study and sharing.

The priest came back 2-3 hours later, looking totally drained. The diagnosis was leukemia, in ad¬vanced stage, in his 22-year-old daughter. Devastating news. It is worthy of noting that after being with his wife and daughter in their shock and alarm he came back to his clergy community to share the news. There was shock, there were tears, there was prayer, there were hugs, there was advice from experience offered by a priest who had been an oncology nurse, there were stories of healing from two others whose fam¬ily members had leukemia. There was hope. There was even some healing from the shock for him, there was strengthening for the family; there was God there in that community. 

The God who creates us, and loves us, and strengthens us for the journey is found in community.

And every person who was there left that gathering thanking God for the gift of relationships and community.

Today there is a new or renewed awareness of the Trinity - of God as Being in Communion, which is the title of a wonderful book by Anglican Bishop John Zizioulas. He writes of God, the Trinity in whom there is no hierarchy, no subordination, nor use of power to exert control over another.

If God’s self is Being in Communion and we are made in the image of God, then we too are to be in communion with our God, and one another and all creation. Our identity is “to be in communion with…”

The gift we have received is the gift of relationship. We have been given one another.
We are learning that this truth is woven into the very fabric of creation. Ever since the 17th century and people like Isaac Newton, we have understood the nature of creation to be an assembly of parts. We have used machine imagery to try to understand God's creation.

In the machine model, things can be taken apart, dissected literally or figuratively as in compart¬mentalized institutions and corporations and vestries, and then put back together again. The assumption has been that by understanding the parts, the workings of each piece, the whole can be understood. The Newtonian model is characterized by a focus on things rather than relationships.

What the New Science has done in the words of Albert Einstein is to help us "see the world anew”, and I would add, to see God anew. The New Science has discovered that the basic building blocks of creation do not exist except in rela¬tionship to something else. It was from the mind of God, in the creation act of God, that relationships are a fundamental element of all creation. No “Unmoved Mover” here.

Nothing happens without something encountering something else. Nothing is independent of the relationships that occur. It is a world in process. It is a world of relationship. It is not a world of disparate, separate parts. It is a world in communion. It is a world of communities.

Another example: So many people have participated in the creation of this jazz Eucharist today, even more in its presentation and production, and even more than that in the acts of worship it inspires and enables. This Offering today culminates in the experience of being in God’s presence, of living in the midst of the God’s kingdom, of being in the community of the God who is at one and the same time the Lover, and the Beloved, and Love, itself.

As wonderful and Samuel Martin’s trumpet work is, and we heard last week just how wonderfully he plays, it is even more wonderful when it is played with the trumpets of Stephen and Alan and Jamie. And their trumpets are even more wonderful when they are joined by the instruments played by Charles, Emily, and Ed, Josh, Mary, Isaac, Henry, Chris and Jim, and James and Carl all led and blended by Carol and supported by the singing of Jenifer and Eve and Laura and Catherine and this congregation, and the heavenly chorus with whom we join – and then all of a sudden we are in that space where we are one with one another and one with the One who created us and the One who redeemed us and the One who sustains us in this life. In the presence of the One God and we make one wonderful communal Alleluia of Adoration and Offering.

And we will go from here created a new people, each of us chosen and sent and empowered by the Triune God in whose presence we have worshipped. Into a world full of his glory.

It is in community, in relationship, that we are most fundamentally true to our identity as God's creation. And in commu¬nity, in relationships, we share who we are in ways that enrich the Other and thereby we find our own true selves and we are enriched as well..

Thanks be to God the Father, and to God the Son, and to God the Holy Spirit. Amen.